TRPA may reconsider position on plan for Kings Beach roundabouts

Three lanes and roundabouts still may be in the cards for a stretch of Highway 28 through Kings Beach.

After being voted down by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency on June 25, Governing Board member Steven Merrill has made a request for reconsideration on the Commercial Core project. This means the board first would have to vote for reconsideration, then potentially reconsider the plans.

"I think this is an extremely emotionally charged topic," said Merrill, who voted for the three-lane option June 25. "One of the issues board members voted against was the traffic through the neighborhood, and there was not a very good job explaining mitigating measures."

While not yet scheduled, the reconsideration could go before the board as early as the July 23-24 meeting and would require five California votes and four from Nevada to pass, said Dennis Oliver, TRPA spokesman.

"If that happens, they won't immediately vote on the project; it will have to come back later," Oliver said.

The plan for three lanes and roundabouts in the Kings Beach Commercial Core was intended to make Kings Beach more pedestrian-friendly, improve water quality and enhance downtown aesthetics. Before it was rejected by the Governing Board, the plan had been unanimously approved by the Placer County Planning Commission and the TRPA Advisory Planning Commission and came with recommendations from the League to Save Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Business Council.

At the TRPA meeting June 25, so-called three-laners and four-laners took turns debating the configuration of Highway 28 through Kings Beach. Those at the meeting weighed three lanes and roundabouts against four lanes and traffic lights. Chief among people's concerns were traffic congestion, pedestrian safety, parking and traffic spilling over into residential areas.

Those in favor of three lanes and roundabouts argued it was necessary to slow speeding traffic through town, would encourage pedestrians and cyclists to use the area, and would be better for the environment.

But those against the project warned that predicted traffic gridlock with the three-lane alternative would just shift the problem onto the residential streets of Kings Beach.